PORT SUDAN: A paramilitary attack on an area east of North Darfur’s besieged capital El-Fasher has killed 14 Sudanese civilians, activists said on Sunday.
The “treacherous attack” took place in an area “northeastern Um Kadadah in North Darfur state on Saturday,” said the local resistance committee. The group is one of hundreds of volunteer organizations that have coordinated aid across Sudan during 21 months of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
El-Fasher, a city of some 2 million people which has been under siege of the paramilitary troops since May, has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war as the army battles to keep its last foothold in the vast Darfur region of western Sudan. Nearly all of Darfur is now controlled by the paramilitary troops, which has also taken over swathes of the neighboring Kordofan region and much of central Sudan. The regular army still controls the north and east, while the capital Khartoum and neighboring cities are a battleground between the warring parties.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Nearly all of Darfur is now controlled by the paramilitary troops, which has also taken over swathes of the neighboring Kordofan region and much of central Sudan.
• The regular army still controls the north and east, while the capital Khartoum and neighboring cities are a battleground between the warring parties.
The war in Sudan began in April 2023, and has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, creating what the United Nations calls one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.
Both the army and the paramilitary have been accused of indiscriminately targeting medical facilities and civilians, as well as deliberately attacking residential areas.
Separately, another 12 people died in the past two days in South Sudan in attacks on citizens from northern neighbor Sudan, the country’s security forces reported, despite an overnight curfew.
Demonstrations sparked by reports that 29 South Sudanese had been killed during fighting in Sudan’s Al-Jazeera state led to the looting of businesses owned by Sudanese nationals in the capital Juba.
Police opened fire to disperse the crowd, killing three and wounding seven.
South Sudan security forces said Saturday that nine people — two South Sudanese and seven Sudanese — had been killed during protests Friday in the town of Aweil.
The world’s newest nation had imposed a curfew Friday night as protests spread to other towns.
